The list comprising CEOs, founders, philanthropists, musicians, policymakers and government officials from across the world, comes before the 2023 UN Climate Change Conference, slated to be held in the United Arab Emirates from November 30.
Nine Indian-origin persons, including World Bank President Ajay Banga and co-founder of Ola Electric Bhavish Aggarwal, have been named in ‘Time 100 Climate list’, the Time magazine’s first-ever list of the world’s most influential leaders driving business to combat climate change.
The list, which comprises CEOs, founders, philanthropists, musicians, policymakers and government officials from across the world, comes before the 2023 UN Climate Change Conference, scheduled to be held in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) from November 30.
“It’s fair to say climate leadership is embedded across all of our coverage today. But we believe more could be done to draw attention to the people who are shaping and leading climate action,” Time said while releasing the list on Thursday.
The list also featured other Indian-origin people such as Rajiv J Shah, president of The Rockefeller Foundation; Geeta Aiyer, founder and president of Boston Common Asset Management, Jigar Shah, director of the US Department of Energy Loan; Manoj Sinha, CEO and co-founder of Husk Power Systems; Seema Wadhwa, executive director of Kaiser Permanente, and Amit Kumar Sinha, MD and CEO of Mahindra Lifespaces.
Banga, who began his five-year term as World Bank Group president in June, is spearheading a new mission for the organization, which is eliminating poverty while combating climate change, according to Time.
“If you can’t breathe and you can’t drink clean water, there’s very little point in eradicating poverty,” he asserted at the 2023 World Bank-IMF meeting in Morocco.
The magazine also talked about Ola’s Aggarwal and how he is leading the path to electrifying transportation in India, as this year, it introduced its most affordable electric scooter priced at INR 79,999.
Meanwhile, Rajiv Shah’s The Rockefeller Foundation is also ensuring that all initiatives and investment strategies are perceived through a climate lens. This year, they collaborated with the Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet to launch the Coal to Clean Credit Initiative. The goal is to create a new carbon finance standard to introduce a transition from coal-fired power plants to renewable energy in developing economies, the magazine stated.
“Wealthy countries not only need to fulfil the climate commitments they made to lower-income countries but also go beyond those commitments. In 2009, high-income countries pledged to deliver USD 100 billion per year by 2020 to developing countries for mitigation and adaptation measures. They fell USD 16.7 billion short of that pledge in 2020 alone,” said Shah.
While Geeta Aiyer’s Boston Common Asset Management is a woman-driven sustainable investment company with nearly USD 5 billion in assets, with its priority set on climate change mitigation and uses shareholder engagement to lead portfolio companies towards sustainable business practices.
“I hope the efforts to address and reverse biodiversity loss and invest in earth renewal gain traction. Ecosystems across the world are on the brink of collapse and millions of plant and animal species are at risk, including humans,” she said.
Also, Amit Sinha’s Mahindra Lifespaces, the real estate and infrastructure development holding of Indian company Mahindra Group, is prioritising sustainability, water efficiency, passive energy design, and renewables, especially since 2013, the magazine added.
Source: dnaindia.com